With the recent abduction (and capture of the predator) of infant Melvin Duclas; it is imperative that we take a new look at caring for our children. They need to be educated and informed about who is out there to harm them, or what a bad guy can do to them. No place is absolutely safe. No one knows the mind of a criminal and why they will take advantage of other people. While they’re young, we have to protect them.

Recently First Baptist Church of Orange Park, Florida hosted a seminar entitled “32 Second”, conducted by Ken Wooden, former investigative reporter who has interviewed many convicted predators and sex offenders. According to Mr. Wooden, all it takes is 32 seconds to distract a child from a safe environment. 32 seconds – that’s it. Children need to learn that everyone is not their friend.

Never let your children go outside to play without adult supervision who you know. Backyards may not be a safe place anymore (pools, retention ponds, loose fence planks etc.). Yes, there use to be a time when it was OK to play up the street with Susie, or go around the corner to visit Johnny and the rest of the gang, but today perverse people can lure your child away from the group or public area of play.

Remember “Our Gang & The Little Rascals"?  There were times that children were heard outside in the distance laughing while jumping rope, playing hop-scotch, or games of marbles or jacks. Children could roam the streets and play ‘kick the can’, ‘hide and seek’, and the sidewalk was the ‘roller rink’. Those were times gone by. Children cannot be left alone today for their own safety.

Know your children’s friends, their parents and check your Spirit man continually. As parents, we are to cover our children every day in prayer, but we also have to use wisdom. As legal guardians, we must not just watch and pray, but ask authoritative people for badges and photo ID’s. Everyone’s word is not their bond. We are to protect and defend. As the photographer (darlamw/flickr) titled her picture: Sept, 2008, Dead End – Slow, Children at play. “Slow children at play… on a dead end? Just ain't right! Wrong on so many levels!”